Professor Patrick Honohan:

I had some experience in trying to get external advice. In the stress tests of 2010 when NAMA was buying banks some people asked me why I would not get some top investment bankers or consultants in to do it and I said we had a string of them and none of them came up with the right answer. Maybe that was a mistake because it was a tough thing to do and we did not get it right in the beginning of 2010. We did subsequently under pressure from the troika. We got some people in who were pretty smart and who helped us until 2011. It is a mixed bag. You would say, "We'll get Merrill Lynch". Are you going to get the thousands of people who work for Merrill Lynch? No. You are going to get a team of four or five people and you could be lucky or you might not be lucky. We have got some very good advice from people in my time. I have seen some very good advice and I have seen some bad advice which I did not take. That is the way it is, and it is very expensive. Why do we pay for it? The reason I would be prepared to pay for it is more for the reputation - do not trust me, trust-----